#bathroom challenge

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Tic Tac Toe Toilet Paper Holder

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[haikujitsu]

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The final bit of this oneshot which grew way out of proportion. Enjoy.

-Hj

* * * * *

"Yeah." Phantom stared down at the hands that sat limply in his lap, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. "I tore him apart."

Maddie paused, chilled by the finality of those words. He wasn’t exaggerating.

She looked at those hands, powerful muscles and tendons that looked deceptively simple, deceptively human. He had dark green embedded under his nails. She wondered darkly how much of the shaking was from shock, and how much was exertion. Though it wouldn’t have been so difficult. Maddie had seen those hands bend steel.

“What a monster, right?” Phantom said dully.

“It’s okay,” she said quietly.

“It is not okay!” He jerked away, yanking the bandages from her hands as he turned on her. The angry green fire that burned in his eyes made the ghost look feral, dangerous, and completely inhuman. Green static crackled through the ghost’s hair and made it bristle like a dog’s hackles. 

“I ki--I killed my friend, just to save my own hide. I did that, don’t you get it?! There is nothing okay with somebody who’d do that.”

Maddie gazed at him, then slowly shook her head. That wasn’t the ghost she’d seen in the past few months. Neither was this frightened, hurting child in front of her.

“Phantom, It’s okay."

The ghost stumbled back into the wall and sank to the floor, covering his head with his arms. “I didn’t want to...I didn’t...”

Maddie set aside the kit and knelt next to Phantom. She carefully, hesitantly put her arms around the boy’s shoulders. The chill seemed instantly through her thin cotton pajamas and bit into her skin, but she refused to pull away. Maddie reached under the ghost's chin and tipped it up so his eyes, red-rimmed and wet, met hers.

“It’s okay.”

[haikujitsu]

Further continuation of this and this. I'm spending way too much time on what was supposed to be a random prompt response. =_=

-Hj

* * * * * 

Phantom held his left arm close to his body and levered himself up with his right. Pulling his legs into a crouch, the ghost gingerly maneuvered himself to sit on the edge of the tub.

There was something a little heart-wrenching in the way he so easily turned his back to her, making himself vulnerable. Maddie was supposed to be his enemy. He was too naive. But then maybe so was she, sitting here barely six inches from one of the most powerful ecto-entities in Amity Park.

All thoughts ground to a halt as she found the jagged wounds that marred the ghost's back.

"What did this?" Some kind of animal, maybe? Maddie folded a square of gauze in half and carefully dabbed at the wounds. He hissed and winced, but to his credit didn’t jerk away. A dark, muddy reddish liquid mingled with the green that oozed down his back. She wondered darkly if ghosts could get infections.

"Friend of mine."

She wiped away more ectoplasm; bruises appeared on the skin beneath, blossoming out from the cuts. "Some friend."

"It wasn’t his fault! Walker was controlling him again. This time it wasn't just a shock collar, they did some kind of brainwashing." His shoulders drooped. “He just kept coming after me.”

Maddie took a roll of gauze and leaned forward to wind it around Phantom’s chest, looping it over his shoulder and slowly, steadily covering the wounds inch by inch, binding it as firmly as she dared. She wanted to make sure it lasted at least a few days; with this ghost’s tendency to get into fights, he’d be lucky to get keep any kind of bandaging for more than a few hours.

“I tried to...to just wound him or knock him out, but whatever they did to him...he just kept getting up." A shudder ran down the ghost’s frame. “No matter...what I did...he just...”

"But you beat him."

"Yeah." Phantom stared down at the hands that sat limply in his lap, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. "I tore him apart."

[haikujitsu]

Continuation of this, using Sarapsys' idea. Kind of. Not sure if this even works, but... worth a try? 

-Hj

* * * *

Maddie sighed. This was probably a bad idea, but... She picked up the kit, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet and settling it in her lap. She patted the side of the tub.

"Sit down. I'll fix you up."

The ghost didn’t move. "What happened to dissecting my smoking remains?"

"What happened to the "hero" who'd run away anytime we came near?"

Phantom looked away miserably. "I'm no hero."

His eyes were sunken and shadowed, as if he'd gone days without sleep. His fingers, cradled under his chin, twitched nervously from over-exertion. He seemed...strung out. Exhausted. Spent.

“Phantom, get up.”

Those nervous fingers clenched into fists. “No.”

“Let me help you.”

“What do you care? Just leave me alone.”

Why would he listen to her, a ghost hunter? She wasn’t even sure of her own motivations; only that it felt too pitiful to see him like this. Ectoplasm had begun pooling round the drain, and fell into the pipe with a faint but steady dripping.

Maddie leaned forward and let her voice slip into a whisper. “You know what happens if you stay in that tub, right?”

He stared up at her with dull green eyes, fear flickering up behind the exhaustion. “What?”

“You’ll turn into a raisin.”

The ghost’s face twisted into blank surprise. “I’ll... uh?”

Maddie leaned back and crossed her arms, keeping a concerned look on her face. “I’m serious; you’ll shrivel up and then I’ll have to explain to my family why there’s a giant ghost raisin in the bathtub.” That earned a tiny grin; Maddie felt gratified. “So you'd better get up here.”

Phantom covered his face with his hands and chuckled weakly. “That’s the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard.”

“As stupid as choosing a ghost hunter’s bathroom to do your first aid?”

He peeked up through his fingers, considering. “Maybe.”

“Then I win.”

“...fine.”